Long Nights - Winky

For the Christmas Character Challenge by The Kawaii Neko

16 – Eggnog – write about Winky

Soon, Master will bring Master Barty home from Azkaban, and he'll be with Winky where he belongs, oh yes.

Winky remembers the day Master Barty was born, oh yes she does. Winky's mother was in attendance then, and Mistress was took ill suddenly in the middle of the night. But Master wouldn't go to St Mungo's, oh no he wouldn't; proper proud about doing everything his own way, he was. Winky was only three years old, and wasn't allowed upstairs, but all night Winky sat by the raging fire in the kitchen and listened to Mistress moaning and wailing the roof down above.

Seven hours in and Winky thought Mistress won't last the night, but suddenly there's silence and then the wail of a newborn baby.

Mistress and Master Barty don't treat Winky different after Winky's mother's death. Master works high-up at the Ministry, out all hours of the day and night. Master's proper cross most of the time and likes Winky to keep her place, but he's a good master, fair and Winky's proper provided for, food and a small cot in the pantry and a present every Christmas.

Master Barty were different, oh yes he was, from the time he were a wee one rushing about in the kitchen and playrooms. Winky smiles more than she ever do before he comes, and Mistress is still ailing; she has never been right since Master Barty was born, so it's Winky who feeds him and washes him and teaches him games and spells and words.

Master Barty grows up into a proper handsome lad, lithe and fair glowing with creamy skin, and Winky feels great pride every time she runs a comb through that reddish mop of hair, oh yes she does. And then Master Barty goes off to Hogwarts and every week there's a letter back home to Master and Mistress, and it's all good news, oh yes it is; how happy he's there, and how he's getting the best marks in all those classes and Master Barty has always had a knack for Quidditch, oh yes and he'll be the best Seeker Hufflepuff has ever seen, oh yes he will.

At the end of fourth year, Master Barty brings home a guest for Christmas. Master Regulus is almost as beautiful as Master Barty, all silky black hair and pale skin, and he's kind too, kinder to Winky than she'd expect any Black to be. He sits stiller than Master Barty when she combs through his hair, and gives Winky a nice warm Butterbeer as a thank you present.

Master is out more and more, because there's an evil wizard called You-Know-Who rising sudden, killing all the Muggleborns and Muggles. Master fights day and night, and isn't back of a Sunday as he used to be. Once Winky found him creeping home in the dead of night, shivering something dreadful and robes all soaked in blood.

Master covers the windows with protection spells and bars the doors and the fireplaces and wraps the garden perimeter round with double strength wards, and Mistress don't seem to notice, but there's nasty rumours flyin' round; and You-Know-Who's offered freedom to House Elves. Winky don't need freedom, oh no she don't, but sometimes she wonders what it'd be like, proper clothes and wages and all.

It'd do for a nutter like Dobby, surely.

Then life goes all downhill.

Master Regulus dies, suddenly, and Winky sits cold and shivering at the service – no funeral, because they can't find the body, feeding that old grump of Kreacher sips of Butterbeer while Dobby waffles on about socks and elf rights on her left. He's a bad elf to be thinking such things and Winky's told him so, but he's never been one for listening.

Master Barty's eyes turn blank and cold after that, and he's never home of a night after Hogwarts gives out.

That awful night is the worst of Winky's short life, oh yes it is, and the wailing is even worse than the night when Master Barty was born.

But now Master Barty is in Azkaban, and Mistress is dying. Winky wishes she could be with Master Barty, that's her true and proper place, oh yes. But Master is clever, and he'll get Master Barty home.

Time doesn't matter anymore; Winky do her duty and be here by the hearth with a warm meal on the plate and a bottle of Butterbeer, and she'll comb the tangles out of his hair again, and wash away the stench of prison with saffron milk and vetiver and vervain.